SWITZERLAND, MISSION PERFORMANCE AND INVEST AFRICA TO ARRIVE INTO RIO TODAY
Switzerland, Mission Performance and Invest Africa are all due into Rio today for as well-earned rest after 31 days at sea. Team Garmin arrived at 0300 local time after celebrating skipper Damian Parnham’s birthday yesterday. There is plenty going on in Rio. Today, former England rugby sevens Captain Ollie Phillips, aboard the GREAT Britain yacht, is joining the Brazilian rugby captain and rugby players from Rio favelas to lead local school children in their first ever rugby skills session on Flamengo beach. In the country famous for football, Ollie hopes hopes to return to the England team and play in the 2016 Rio Olympics, the first time rugby sevens will feature as an Olympic sport.
The 2009 IRB Player of the Year, Ollie Phillips, said: “Being here in Rio with the Clipper Race and having the opportunity to work with Fernando Portugal to introduce one of the UK’s national sports to kids in Brazil has been a highly inspirational and memorable experience. “Brazil is famously a footballing nation but the opportunities for young people to be exposed to rugby and many more sports as they prepare to host the Olympics are vast. I hope very much to return here in three years as an Olympic athlete and see how the sport has grown in popularity.” Tomorrow will see Qingdao round the world crew member and restaurant owner and chef Lawrence Lingard take part in a cook off with a Brazilian chef. There will also be a regatta for Mission Performance and a networking event hosted by GREAT Britain.
